


Unnoticed

by Bmarvels



Series: FairyTail AU Short Stories & One Shots [3]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - School, F/M, Stereotypes, Study Date
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-11-16 06:53:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18089564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bmarvels/pseuds/Bmarvels
Summary: Lucy, a quiet bookish girl, gets asked to help the most popular guy at school, Natsu, study in a class he's failing. Unfortunately, their first impressions of each other don't go over so smoothly. Can they get past the stereotypes placed on them?





	Unnoticed

“What do you mean I can’t go to the state championships?” Natsu argued with his professor. The baseball team just won their last game putting them into the state championships for the first time in 10 years. Natsu was their main pitcher and nothing was going to keep him from playing. Although, his English professor was trying to tell him otherwise.

“You’re failing the class. By school regulations, if you are failing any of your core classes, you are temporarily withdrawn from extra curricular activities. In your case, this would be sports.” His professor explains. “However, if you manage to pass the next two upcoming tests with A’s, then your grade will be barely passing enough so you can continue with your sport activities.”

Natsu groans at the thought of their upcoming tests. English was his worst subject. _It’s only writing! What’s the point in writing essays anyways?_

 

Lucy loves coming to the Fairy Tail cafe. It’s quaint style, unique atmosphere, and the smell of freshly brewed coffee just adds to the serenity. Lucy frequents the cafe whether she’s working on homework or working on her own writing. Levy jokes about how much time she spends at the cafe, which is now more often than her blue-haired friend that works there part-time. Today, she studies for her upcoming tests with several textbooks stacked on the coffee table and her notes strewn about as she filters through them. The evening remains calm and quiet for Lucy to continue with her studies until a rowdy bunch bursts through the doors disturbing her peace.

 

“Can you believe it? What am I going to do?” a pink-haired guy bellows as he enters the once quiet cafe. Lucy immediately recognizes him from her school, Natsu, the all-sports star. “Who made such a stupid rule anyways?”

“Give it a rest, man. You’ve been whining about it the entire way here.” His buddy, Gray, bickers back. “Just find someone to help you study or something.”

“Well, why can’t you help me?!”

“I’m not in your class, Flame Brain!”

“So…?” Natsu draws out trying to convince his friend.

“Do I really have to spell it out for you?!” He rolls his eyes. “I don’t know the material you’re going over. Even if by some miracle, you had a study guide for me to quiz you on, it would be better for someone who knows the material to help you.”

Natsu mumbles a jab at Gray in response as they get up to the register to place their orders. With their orders taken, they find an open table to sit and wait passing by a quiet blonde who happened to be reading a textbook that looks exactly like one of Natsu’s. The familiar book catches his eye stopping him in his tracks.

“Hey,” he says trying to get the blonde’s attention, “do you by chance have Professor Strauss for your English Comp I class?”

Lucy looks up at the intruding voice as she tries to not look annoyed at him. “Yes,” she says tentatively drawing out the end of the word wondering why he was even bothering her with this question. “We’re actually in the same class.”

His eyes grow wide as she looks back down at the material in front of her. “Wait! You’re in my class?” Natsu asks putting his hand on her book pushing it down and leaning in close. Startled, Lucy’s face heats up with the sudden proximity of his face to hers. His dark eyes bear into hers with his lips pressed in a firm line. “Will you help me study?”

“E-excuse me?” she stammers.

Natsu leans in closer repeating his question. “Will you help me study? I need help in this class.”

“Uhh..sure,” Lucy tentatively agrees noticing he has yet to move away from her personal space, “but could you please back up a bit? You don’t need to be that close!”

“Great!” He exclaims with a toothy grin as he straightens back up. “Name’s Natsu. Nice to meet ya.”

Lucy leers at the pink haired jock, beaming from ear to ear at her. “Right, like I said before, we have the same class. I know who you are,” she replies before mumbling under her breath that the whole school knows of him: Natsu Dragneel, the most popular guy, the shining star of every sports team for their school. “I’m Lucy. What exactly are you needing help with in class?”

“Basically, teach said I need to pass the next two tests with an A otherwise I get benched from performing in the championships.” He explains nonchalantly.

“Let me rephrase that. What part of the class are you struggling with? Your grade would have to be pretty low to be at this point, why is it low?”

“Writing is so hard! I don’t see the point in writing essays anyways! Why would I even need it?” He exasperates.

Lucy struggles to keep her composure as the jock whines about writing and how useless it is. A fury burns within her as she wonders why she agreed to help the simpleton. “Look, if you want my help, then you’re going to have to try to change your outlook on the class and writing. It’s more than just about writing essays.”

Natsu considers her words with a confused look on his face. His head tilts slightly to the side as his mouth twists into a small pout. By the look on his face, Lucy would swear that thinking was a struggle for him and causes him pain.It appeared that it wasn’t his strongest suit, but Lucy wasn’t here to judge. If he was serious about wanting help, then she would need him to be serious.

“I don’t really understand but I guess if I did then I wouldn’t be in this mess so you can teach me!” He replies with a toothy grin.

 _He has so much energy…_ Lucy stares at him with his wild pink hair sticking up in every direction, but it didn’t necessarily look messy. _I wonder if he styles it or just wakes up like that…_

She notices a few other unique features of his such as his dark onyx eyes that contrast to the bright hue of his hair and the sharp canines that make small indents to his bottom lip when he smiles. She didn’t realize she had been staring at him instead of continuing their conversation until she hears him calling out her name.

“Lucy?”

A small blush tints her cheeks as he looks at her with a soft gaze. “Yeah?”

“Are you okay? I’ve been saying your name but you kinda zoned out. I was starting to wonder if I misheard your name.”

She fidgets in her seat as she scrambles to keep her book from falling out of her lap, clutching it to her chest. “Oh, I-I’m fine.” She sheepishly replies before getting their conversation back on track and hopefully closer to an end. “Why don’t we meet after class in the library and we can look over your work and see what I can help you with?”

“Sounds great!” He agrees excitedly before his attention is diverted to his name being called to pick up his order. “Well, see you tomorrow!”

 

The next day, Lucy waits for Natsu in the library. Class ended nearly ten minutes ago and she came straight here to meet him. _Typical. Why would a jock take this seriously?_

Instead of dwelling on it, she reviews her notes for the upcoming test a couple times before opening her book to read, while she waits. Nearly twenty more minutes pass, before Lucy sighs closing her book, resolved that he wouldn’t be coming after all. She begins packing her things just as a familiar loud voice enters the library, immediately shushed by the librarian.

“Yo, Luce,” he greets her casually with his bag slung over his shoulder. “Ready to study?”

She can’t help but glare at him. _Who does he think he is? Doesn’t he know I’ve been waiting for half an hour for him to show up? And what’s with the weird nickname?_

“Look, Natsu. I know I told you I would help, and I was serious about it, but I don’t think it’s going to work out.”

He gives her a confused look cocking his head to the side. “What are you talking about? We haven’t even started.”

“I need someone who is serious to be able to help, not some jock who’s only here in hopes that it’ll just magically work out for them without putting any real work into it.” Normally, she isn’t so rude or stereotypical but he hasn’t given her a reason to believe he plans on trying.

“Whoa, I’m sorry that I’m a bit late, but I can explain that without you insulting me. I had to go check on my little sister first and since we didn’t give an exact time nor a way of contacting each other, I tried to get here as soon as I could.” He explains holding his hands up defensively.

Lucy’s gaze softens up a bit, realizing she was jumping to conclusions. She sighs before sitting back down at the table. “You’re right. I’m sorry. Would you still like me to help you?”

He grins as he joins her at the table, setting his stuff down and unloading his bag. “Don’t worry about it! I get it all the time honestly and it doesn’t help when a bunch of the jocks are actually like that. It irritates the crap outta me!”

Lucy smiles suppressing a light giggle. His energy and smile are infectious as she opens up their book to get to work.

They work quietly and efficiently as Lucy explains the concepts to why it’s important to write in a professional manner and how it’s an extension of everyday communication, giving examples of how writing is used even in the technological age. Natsu keeps his focus on her, listening as she carefully explains everything in a way he would better understand. It was becoming much easier than when he would sit through class trying to listen to their teacher explain. It also helped that her eyes would shine as she talked passionately about writing, her silvery voice captivating him, and she was a really nice person, even if she did snap at him earlier. Soon, the library’s closing hours approached so the two packed their things to head out. Natsu feeling a bit more confident after working through some trial essays she had him write.

“Since we still have about a week before the next exam, do you mind if we tried this again? I really want to make sure I have it down.” Natsu asks as they exit the library doors.

“Sure, Natsu. That would be great.” She replies sweetly with a smile.

“Hey, Natsu!” They hear someone call as they turn towards the voice. It was one of Natsu’s teammates, Sting Eucliffe. He was second to Natsu in terms of popularity but still managed to always have a group of girls clinging to him. It was a rare sight to see him without at least one girl on his side, this was one of those times.

“Finally hitting it with the bookworms. I told ya they come in handy.” The blond winks at Natsu as he walks up to them. “Looks like you found a hot one, too. How did I manage to miss this one?”

He looks up and down at Lucy as she tries to cover herself with her book against her chest, uncomfortable beneath his scrutiny.

“Well, anyways,” his focus back on Natsu, “as cute as you two look together, Coach sent me to get you.”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot about that extra practice session he set up. And we aren’t a thing. I’m not with her.” Natsu says to clear up any confusion. “So, no, I’m not hitting it with the bookworms. I’ll leave that to the rest of you.”

Lucy had enough of this conversation so she turns away from them and walks away. Natsu’s words still piercing through her. She couldn’t understand what irritated her. Was it the fact he stereotyped her as a bookworm agreeing with his buddy? Or just the flat out rejection of her even being good enough potential for him? She shakes her head at the last one. Why should she care? She was only there to help him study, nothing more.

 

Lucy goes to class and sits in her normal seat towards the back in the corner where she could remain unnoticed. Comp I was one of her favorite classes and she was one of the top students, but she never wanted to be the center of attention. She opens up her book to read as she waits for the crowd of students to filter in before class starts. Just as the professor enters, quieting a class, one more student rushes in and sits in the empty seat in front of her.

“Hey, Luce!”

Lucy jumps a bit in her seat as she looks up to see spiky pink hair and a set of dark onyx eyes staring at her. Natsu sits there partially turned around, smiling at her, but Lucy looks back down at her book. Natsu’s smile falters a bit at her lack of reaction to him before turning back around as the professor starts talking. Lucy keeps her head down throughout the class period, much like normal but to ignore the guy sitting now in front of her who kept glancing over his shoulder at her every so often. She lays her head down as she buries her face into the crook of her folded arms on top of her desk, silently pleading for the class to end soon.

As soon as the professor dismissed them to conclude their class period for the day, Lucy makes a mad dash out the door. She doesn’t give Natsu the chance to turn around and talk to her before she’s gone. Walking at a brisk pace to keep distance from Natsu in case he decided to follow, Lucy tries to decide if she should head to the library or to her favorite coffee shop. Before she could make her decision, her arm is grabbed from behind turning her around to be face to face with the one person she was trying to avoid. His eyes shining with concern gaze into hers as his hold doesn’t relent.

“Lucy, what’s wrong? Has something happened?”

She tries to pull her arm free from his grip. “Let go.”

“Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Since when did you start caring about us ‘bookworms’?” She wheeled around asking in a louder voice than she intended.

It took Natsu off guard and caught the attention of a few other students around them. He pulls her along as he walks briskly down the hallway into an empty classroom, Lucy protesting and trying to pry herself from his grip the whole way.

“What is the matter with you? Let me-” her words were stopped by a pair of lips against hers.Shocked and flustered, Lucy barely registers that it’s Natsu actually kissing her. He pulls away slowly looking at her with still some concern in his eyes. Seeing her frozen and trying to register what just happened, he takes the moment to talk to her.

“I’m sorry for what I said at the library with Sting. I realized that it didn’t sound like how I meant it.” He begins as he let’s go of her arm to hold the back of his neck nervously. “Sting is always about girls doing stuff for him. I’m not like that and I hate how he’s okay with what he’s doing. I don’t see why the other guys can’t just do their own work or why the girls are even okay with being treated that way. It’s not like it’s hard to do the work, and we aren’t better than anyone else. This comp class is the only one I have difficulty in but at least I’m trying,” Natsu rambles on as Lucy just gapes at him.

She shakes her head clear trying to process what just happened watching him chatter on. “Natsu!” she shouts. He stops talking and looks at her. “Why did you kiss me?”

A blush spreads across his face as panic sets in. He didn’t know how to explain it. One moment he was worried about her and wanted her to open up to him. The next, he wanted to calm her down and her lips caught his attention. After their time in the library, he felt connected to her and he didn’t want to lose that feeling. His body just took over without him thinking as he found himself kissing her and then rambling.

“I-I’m so sorry, Lucy! I don’t know what came over me,” his face heats up. Before he could start rambling again, she’s suddenly kissing him.

Reluctantly, she pulls away with a matching blush on her face.

“Um, Lucy?” Nastu looks at her confused.

“Can we just start over? We kinda started off on the wrong foot,” she asks fidgeting with her hands.

He beams at her with that signature smile of his, his normal cheery energy suddenly returned. “Sure! I’m Natsu, Natsu Dragneel.” He says extending a hand out to her.

With a small smile and a light giggle, she returns the handshake. “Lucy, Lucy Heartfilia. It’s a pleasure to meet you Natsu.”

“Would you like to grab a coffee later? I know this great little coffee shop not too far from here. You may have heard of it, Fairy Tail Cafe?”

Lucy laughs at the goofy guy, but is excited about what he might have in store for her. “That sounds great, Natsu.” There were worst ways to have your first kiss stolen after all.

 


End file.
